1. Field of the Invention:
Lens surfacing equipment with particular reference to improvements in grinding and polishing pads.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art:
Lens grinding and polishing pads are commonly cut away to provide channels for distributing abrasive slurries over the surface of a lens to be worked. The cuts are usually radially oriented with many or all extending from near the center to the edge of the pad. This produces floppy pad segments rendering the pads difficult to handle and particularly difficult to attach to surfacing tools with their segments properly aligned and similarly difficult to remove for replacement.
With the usual adhesive backings of the floppy cutaways tending to accidentally stick to one another and to the hands or unwanted areas of a tool surface, a considerable waste of time and frustration can be experienced in initially applying the pad to a surfacing tool and/or replacing same, not to mention the costliness of machine downtime during pad installation or replacement. Pad slippage and wrinkling due to loss of tool contact in cutaway areas of prior art pads have also been detrimental to lens product yield and quality.
An object of the invention is to overcome the problems of difficult surfacing pad handling and more particularly provide for greater than usual ease of cutaway pad application to supporting tools and their replacement, all with an assurance of proper working alignment of pad segments and secureness of their attachment to the tools. Another object is to provide for simple one piece removal of spent pads.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description.